A General sleep-in: Wooster to host its own cross country invitational
By Brian Questel
August 31, 2011
514
The Wooster High School (WHS) cross country team will be competing in its best meet of the season Sept. 10. After having to catch a bus and be on the road by 6:30 a.m. each of the previous two Saturdays to head to Revere and Avon Lake, there will be no buses involved Saturday when the Generals host their own invitational.
A total of 20 varsity teams will come to Wooster, among them state power Hudson, to compete in Woosters annual race. Hudson, which advanced to the state meet last year with both its boys and girls programs, will be joined in Wooster by local schools Chippewa, Kingsway, Loudonville, Northwestern, Norwayne, Orrville, Smithville and Triway, along with Canton South, Clear Fork, Elyria, Mansfield Madison, Manchester, Orange, Sandy Valley and Willoughby, along with the girls programs from Amherst Steele and Dublin Scioto.
A total of 10 middle schools will also attend the meet: Canton South, Clear Fork, Orrville, Northwestern, Perrysville, Smithville, Sandy Valley, Triway, Kingsway and Edgewood.
The meet opens with the varsity boys running at 9 a.m., followed by the varsity girls at 9:30, the boys open at 10:05 and the girls open at 10:35. The boys middle school race will begin at 11:10, followed by the girls at 11:40.
Last years races finished with the same one-two showing in both races, with Hudson claiming both first place trophies and Chardon placing second in each race. In the middle school competition, Edgewood won both titles as well.
Its a nice invite, said WHS boys coach Doug Bennett. Its a good, medium-sized invitational, and I think its a nice one. We have 15-18 teams in the boys and girls varsity races, which should come out to between 400-500 runners being here for the middle and high school races. There will be not quite 100 runners in each race.
Im looking forward to the competition. There should be some nice matchups. Nolan Riley, of Hudson, who won at Revere, runs in the low 16s (minutes), which is good for this time of year. Hudson will have a very good team as usual and Im looking for our boys to do well. We should be able to put together a nice team. Its also a competitive field for the girls and it will be exciting to watch that race.
This is a good early season test. We have a very fair course and you can get some fast times on that course.
